Apart from spells with Huddersfield and in Hong Kong, Hampshire-born Craig Maskell has contrived to have a long-lasting football career close to his roots. His initial experience of the Football League was with First Division Southampton, for whom he scored on his second substitute appearance at White Hart Lane.

A stylish, composed and pacey forward,

he would have few starts over the next two seasons, as Colin Clarke, Gordon Hobson and Danny Wallace were considered, as he puts it, more “effective”. Meanwhile, Craig scored freely for the Reserves, until he was sold to Third Division Huddersfield for £50,000. He flourished there, scoring 43 goals in 87 games. After which, he moved within that third tier to Reading, with Southampton receiving £100,000 of the quarter-million fee. He next stepped up a division by joining Glenn Hoddle’s Swindon and scored in their 1993 play-off win at Wembley. Having spent the first half of the 1993-94 season at foot-of-the-Premiership Swindon – delighting in scoring a penalty against Tim Flowers when they lost 5-1 at The Dell – Craig was brought back to Southampton by new boss, Alan Ball, in February 1994.

He knew he had made the right move when he scored with a header on his second debut, at home to Liverpool,

but he again failed to carve a permanent niche in Southampton’s forward-line – or, indeed, to register another goal for the club.

He had a further 100 League appearances left in him, though, playing for Bristol City, Brighton and, finally, Orient, with whom his professional career climaxed in a play-off final v Scunthorpe at Wembley. He then played and coached non-league, eventually becoming assistant-manager at Blue Square South Staines, until April 2012. He had become a sports- teacher at Southgate College in north London during his time in non-league, but when his active role in football ended, he returned to Hampshire in earnest, to teach sports at Eastleigh College, while living near Chandlers Ford.